This is my first time ever participating in Tammy’s Kitchen Tip Tuesday. This week instead of giving a tip we are requesting a tip on something in the kitchen we need. I need a tip on cleaning the oven. Over the Thanksgiving holiday my mom’s boyfriend cooked an apple pie. And I guess it dripped down onto my oven. I then went to cook chicken one night and there was smoke coming out of my oven…. NOT GOOD! So, I ended up eating at Subway that night. Then one night I was hosting a dinner party. I was having some friends and the missionaries over for dinner and I was making Enchilada Pie. I had prayed oven off on the bottom of the oven earlier and tried cleaning it off, but I guess I wasn’t as successful as I thought I was because while I was putting the Enchilada Pie together with my oven preheating I looked down to see flames in my oven…….HOLY $*&^% If my husband was not home my house would be burnt down. At the sight of flames I screamed, turned around grabbed my baby, ran to the stairs and yelled for Jayden to get his butt down here the house was on fire… grabbed the phone and was getting ready to dial 911 while running out of the house… when my husband says, “Amanda, calm down I put it out.” So I guess my husband grabbed the water hose thingy on the sink and sprayed the fire and put it out…. I’ve heard that’s not really a smart thing to do, but whatever it worked. I called a friend of mine that was coming to dinner at my house and she came and picked up my enchilada pie and baked it for me. So, that was a few weeks ago and I have yet to use my oven. So, somebody please tell me what a good way to clean the bottom of your oven.
And for other Kitchen Tip Tuesday ideas (this week it be you giving advice to others) please go here Tammy’s Recipes
I am assuming that your oven is not a self cleaning oven? If this is the case, there are oven cleaners that you can buy at the store, usually in the aisle with other household cleaners. Remove the racks from your oven and follow the directions on whatever brand you purchase. I see that you have little ones in the house. Maybe your husband could take them out for a few hours while you do this so as not to expose them to whatever fumes may be created. You are quite correct, it is important to keep your oven clean for safety’s sake. Hope this helps you.
Well, this isn’t scientific or anything, but… whenever I have had things run over in my oven, I let the oven cool and then cleaned the burnt stuff off with a metal pancake turner and a dish rag (e.g. scrape off the burnt stuff, wipe it down). The next few times I used the oven, I made sure I wasn’t baking something at a really hot temp (like, nothing 400 degrees or above), so any residue could slowly burn off. Similar to like if you spill someting on an electric stovetop element and wipe it up… it still smells a little the next time you use it (I turn on the exhaust fan).
And really… prevention is the best thing… now, when I bake a pie that might run over, or anything in a dish that might run over, I put an old cookie sheet on the oven shelf below, to catch any possible drips. 🙂
Tammy
(tammysrecipes)
I hate it when that happens! Here’s what I’d do:
1. Start with a cold oven. Scrape off everything that comes easily.
2. Buy some of that nasty oven cleaner and follow the instructions. Multiple times, if necessary.
3. Test drive your oven before you cook something else–turn it on hot and let any residue and fumes burn off. Turn on the fan if it smells a bit. If all the stuff is gone, you shouldn’t have any fires.
4. Keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. 🙂 And like Tammy said, prevention is the best!
Great tips! I’m going to be buying a small little 1 handed fire extinguisher that they have at Home Depot and then I’m going to do every step Mrs. Mordecai gave me and then I’ve gotta stick w/Tammy on the prevention thing!! Is it possible to put tin foil on the bottom?? Then like Beth said – I’ll have to have my husband take the kids out for the day ~ thanks girls 🙂
My landlord told me not to put foil on the bottom of the oven as she said it will burn out the heating element. I guess it happened to them before and they had to replace the oven.
Hi…
You can purchase disposble aluminum oven liners from Walmart to help keep your oven clean in the future. They come two to a package, in several different sizes, and can be found near the disposable aluminum pans. I work at an apartment complex and we put them in all our ovens before new tennants move in. You should see what some of the ovens look like after kids, who have never lived away from home, move out in the spring. It is awful!
You should also purchase yourself some gloves to wear when using the oven cleaner. We get a blue pair that Walmart sells in their painting department, because they are a much sturdier pair of gloves than the regular dish washing type.
No matter how hard you try, there will be some residue left after you clean with the lye cleaners. You can just expect some fumes the first time you turn on the oven, but you can help reduce the amount, if you will do a final wipe down of the oven with a clean cloth lightly sprayed with white vinegar. It helps to remove that final residue pretty good.
Good luck to you on your cleaning adventure. Make sure you have lots of gumption and elbow grease when you start it!
Oh, and one more thing… baking soda will work great to put out an oven fire! I have had personal experience with that one… 😛
This is a little late, I obviously have some oven cleaning issues too! My friend sprinkled table salt on stuff that fell on the bottom of the oven. The salt seems to stop the stuff from burning/smelling AND helps you scrub the stuff off when you clean it (once cool). Never spray oven cleaner on a self-cleaning oven, it ruins it.